The Digital Reader

The Journal, Tuesday, 8/29

Hey Folks, In the interest of “fair and balanced reporting,” via The Digital Reader check out David Gaughran’s “The Visibility Gambit” at https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2017/08/28/the-visibility-gambit/. Spoiler Alert: This is in favor of going with Amazon KDP Select, but be sure to read the comments too. Hey, whatever works for you. To learn more about KDP Select (this feeds Kindle Unlimited) and determine whether it’s right for you, visit https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/. Be sure to also read https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/A6KILDRNSCOBA?ref_=kdp_KDPS_faq/ and then click the link for KDP Terms and Conditions and read that. I decided today to take a chance, though really it isn’t much of a … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 8/24

Hey Folks, Well, I’m back. A company called ReDigi is attempting to get an appeals court to let them resell “used” ebooks. Nonsense, in my opinion. And the way ReDigi wants to do it would cut the publisher and author out of any royalties. So double nonsense. Nothing in an ebook can ever become degraded. There are no physical pages to be underlined and highlighted and dog-eared, etc. According to current law (see https://the-digital-reader.com/2017/08/23/ruling-redigi-case-cant-re-open-door-used-ebook-market-door-never-closed/) an ebook can’t be sold as “used” but the seller can sell the media on which it is stored. (There’s another link on the linked article … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 8/17

Hey Folks, Do Yourself a Favor and please read “Voyage to the Otherworld: A New Eulogy for Ray Bradbury” (via The Passive Voice) at https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/08/15/voyage-to-the-otherworld-a-new-eulogy-for-ray-bradbury/. *** The workshop yesterday was SUCH a blast! Everybody was on time, attentive, and hungry to learn. What can be better than that? I’ll definitely do this one again in a month or two, but on a Saturday. Mostly so some of those who wanted to attend this time but couldn’t can do so. I think of this as a “master’s level” workshop. It was a lot of things I’ve learned and made my own … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 8/16

Hey Folks, I’ll be off to teach my workshop this morning at around 9, so I’ll post this early. Looking very forward to seeing some old friends again, and making one new friend. I’m also looking forward to seeing how the workshop goes. (grin) UPDATE: Well, I forgot to post it early. The workshop went even better than I expected. I’m psyched. (grin) As a reminder, in the workshop, I’ll cover Hooks, Openings, Grounding the Reader in the Story, Physical and Emotional Cliffhangers, Pacing and Endings. At the end of the workshop, I’ll also talk a bit about Process. There … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 8/15

Hey Folks, Via The Digital Reader, The Huffington Post (whom I would never and am not now promoting) published an article titled “The 4 Great Myths of Book Publishing.” You can read the full article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-4-great-myths-of-book-publishing_us_5988e9ebe4b08a4c247f252d/, but I’ll save you the trouble. There are actually a lot more myths about traditional publishing than four, but we’ll go with the ones they list. According to the article, the myths are that a traditional publisher will aggressively promote your book to the widest possible readership, ensure your book gets on the shelves of all the nation’s bookstores, print your book’s text … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 8/14

Hey Folks, I know at least one writer who still does extensive research before writing. That said, most of us use the hunt-and-peck method. In the midst of a story (sometimes a sentence) we pop online for a moment, do some quick research on the type of tree the hero is leaning against, which months a particular river flows, etc. Then we pop back into the story, add what we learned and move on. Most often, that search is accomplish on Google or Bing or one of the other popular search engines. For us, now there are a lot more … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 8/11

Hey Folks, I did pretty much nothing writing related today other than working on the handout for the upcoming intensive. Did a lot of stuff outside and around the office. Man, I’d forgotten how difficult it is to put on one of these things and prepare for it. (grin) But it’s all good. For one thing, I decided to scrap the nonfiction book idea for now. That will come after the seminar(s) is over, if at all. Right now I just wanna teach a good class. Today I did a lot of back-and-forth stuff, going from the handout I’m preparing … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 8/10

Hey Folks, I don’t remember whether I’ve mentioned this before, but if anyone would like to read “The Fiction Factory” (being the Experience of a Writer who, for Twenty-two Years, has kept a Story-mill Grinding Successfully) by John Milton Edwards, send me an email and I’ll send you a PDF copy. Very interesting stuff. Chock full of gems. Part of my recent problem (“problem” is too harsh a word) is that my brain is trying to shut down to allow for the new knowledge I’ll absorb during the workshop I’m currently taking from Dean. Of course, that’s absurd. Nothing I’ve … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 8/3

Hey Folks, Well, the curator giveth and the curator taketh away. One of the bundles my work was going to be in was deleted by the curator. I think maybe he scheduled it too soon (August 15). Anyway… Topic: Creating .epub and .mobi Files… Uh, No In “Of Interest” today, Nate Hoffelder (The Digital Reader) mentions that Amazon has released a Kindle Create file creation tool as an add-in for Microsoft Word. He goes on awhile too about creating .epub files, for which there are various programs. Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t understand why this would matter, … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 7/20

Hey Folks, I’m so excited about this first bit I can barely breathe. Truly a drop-the-mic moment. Via The Digital Reader (Thanks, Nate!) you can now download and read — FREE — a huge archive of Amazing Stories magazines. They are available in several formats, and both Kindle and PDF downloaded quickly for me. If you like SF, this is a treasure trove. If you want to study masterful writers, this is an atomic treasure trove. (And please, if you think you have to want to write SF to learn from masterful SF writers, you shouldn’t have access to sharp … Read more